


Big, brown eyes and a heartbeat

by softjohndae



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: A hint of Minsung, Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, Changpil, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, Punk!Felix, Side Seungjin, Skaterboy!Changbin, Underage Drinking, Underage Smoking, changlix
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-26
Updated: 2018-02-26
Packaged: 2019-03-24 08:36:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13807527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/softjohndae/pseuds/softjohndae
Summary: ”Ow! What the hel-””The fuck, man? Look where you’re going!”





	Big, brown eyes and a heartbeat

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Big, brown eyes and a heartbeat](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14264328) by [Alvi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alvi/pseuds/Alvi), [room_23](https://archiveofourown.org/users/room_23/pseuds/room_23)



> The punkboy!Felix x skaterboy!Changbin AU absolutely no one asked for. 
> 
> English isn't my native language and this came out a lot longer than I first intended it to but yeah lmao I hope you enjoy!

”Later, mom!” Changbin shouted as he slammed shut the door behind him. His mother probably yelled at him from the kitchen about not slamming the door and hinges breaking but Changbin didn’t hear her, nor did he care. He grabbed his skateboard and plugged an earphone in. Only one, though, he needed to be aware of his surroundings. He wasn’t so keen on getting in a car crash or smashing himself against a tree or a bench (wouldn’t be the first time for that to happen, though). His skateboard was black, he didn’t have any money for some sick custom paint, but on the underside of the board read ”We are the children of the bad revolution” with white letters. Edgy. Changbin thought it was cool, his friend Jisung, however, had just snorted at it. Well, Jisung himself had a board with a fake Supreme logo, so he wasn’t any better. Changbin threw the board on the asphalt and jumped on the deck, pushing some speed before wheeling away from his front yard. 

Changbin lived in a pretty good area, it was a 25-minute bus ride away from the city center so not that far from the pulsing nightlife. It was relatively quiet, mainly families and elderly people. And rich people. Changbin waved a hand at his neighbor who was mowing the lawn and pushed some more speed. The skate park was a few blocks away, and that was the main reason Changbin liked where he lived. He was pretty good at skateboarding. Not a pro, no, but pretty good. Not an amateur anymore. He knew a few tricks and how to handle the board, and he had won some competitions, so he considered himself relatively good. Changbin reached for his phone in his hoodie’s pocket (Thrasher, of course) and let the slight downhill carry him. The street ahead of him was clear, the heat of the summer making people flee inside (and yes, the hoodie was really warm but Changbin had an image to maintain) and the sun was shining. A perfect day for learning some new tricks, as Minho would say. Changbin moved his eyes away from the street, just to quickly type a text for Jisung that he was on the way. 

Next thing he knew he crashed onto something and fell on the ground. His phone hurled from his hands, palms collided against the ground hard. His knees scraped the asphalt roughly, and he heard a ripping sound.   
”Ow! What the hel-”  
”The fuck, man? Look where you’re going!” Throbbing pain shot from Changbin’s left knee and he almost cried out. Almost. He was used to falling and having his knees and elbows dripping blood so the pain wasn’t new to him, and he most certainly wasn’t a baby anymore, he didn’t cry from slight scratches. He quickly got back to his feet and reached for his phone a few feet away. Luckily it didn’t get any damage, the screen was already cracked anyway. Changbin turned around to meet what, or rather, who, he had crashed against and was ready to nag about getting on his way, but the words kind of died in his throat. 

There was a boy sitting on the ground, rubbing his elbow. He had also fallen from the impact and hurt himself in the collision. Changbin’s board was next to the boy’s feet. He had ripped, well, actually more like torn, jeans (there was more skin than actual fabric covering his legs), a pair of black Converses on his feet and a shirt of some band Changbin had never ever heard of, but those weren’t the things that had caught his attention. He looked weird. Not in a bad way but in an interesting way. Sort of beautiful but not exactly (boys weren’t supposed to be beautiful). He had tousled, orange hair, a kiss curl hovering over his forehead, ears full of different kinds of jewellery. ”What the fuck are you staring at?” The boy looked up at Changbin before rising to his feet, shaking the dust off his clothes. The jewellery didn’t stop in his ears. The boy had piercings on both sides of his lower lip (snake bites, Changbin recalled) and a ring on the right side of his nose. And an angry expression.  
”Oh, well, I don’t know, someone actually had the audacity to jump on a perfectly clear street right in front of me?” Changbin shot back. Oh, he wasn’t gonna let some raggare curse at him.  
”Excuse me? You were the one staring at your phone?” The boy’s voice was low and velvety. He had an accent in his speech, so he clearly wasn’t from around.   
”So you’re telling me it was my fault I didn’t notice you from behind the bushes?” Changbin’s voice, on the other hand, was quite rough and nasal.  
”You would have if you hadn’t stared at your phone.”   
”No I wouldn’t.”  
”Yes you would.”   
”No.”  
”Yes.” Was he really getting into an argument with a complete stranger? Usually they just apologised and continued whatever they were doing but this boy really had the balls to continue and stare at him with a raised eyebrow. An eyebrow with a slit. Who the hell did he think he was?   
”No.”  
”What fucking ever. You’re bleeding.” Changbin grinned at his win before glancing down. His black jeans had ripped from the knee and blood was gushing out from a small wound. Quickly he wiped his knee with the hem of his sleeve to check how big the wound was.   
”It’s just a scratch.” It wasn’t ’just a scratch’, but Changbin wasn’t going to spend any more time with the boy than necessary.   
”Are you sure?” The boy asked with worry laced his voice and face. Quite the expression change, Changbin noted.   
”I’m not dying, thank you very much.” He booted his board so that it was on it’s wheels again before stepping on it with one foot. Well, now the orange-haired, pierced boy looked awkward and Changbin felt kind of sorry for him. It wasn’t his intention to be so rude but hey, the bump wasn’t his fault and the boy had argued back.   
”You should check out that elbow, though.” He said, before finally kicking off. His leg hurt, yeah, but it wasn’t anything serious. Maybe it would hurt a couple of days but no pain no gain. Suddenly the boy shouted something behind him, but Changbin turned just around the corner not to hear him. And did he care? No. He was probably gonna just argue about something else. Maybe his phone had got broken or something, and Changbin sure as hell wasn’t gonna pay for that. Yeah, maybe he should have looked at the road instead of his phone but it was just a quick text, he didn’t look at his phone for more than a couple of seconds. He would have noticed the boy if he wasn’t behind the goddamn hedgerow. Changbin kicked some more pace, the park wasn’t far anymore. 

Back on Changbin’s home street, the boy ruffled his hair and noticed something on the ground. A pair of earphones. He picked them up and shouted after the black-haired skaterboy, just to get ignored. He had a feeling he was going to see the (cute) skateboarder again, so he simply stuffed the earbuds in his jeans’ pocket and went to get a bandaid from the inside of his house. The skaterboy had had a cute pink tint on the tips of his ears when he had got pissed. 

 

* * *

 

”You guys have some bandaids?” Changbin partly yelled when he rolled into the park. His friends were sitting in a circle around one of the tables near the rails. The park was quite packed, a lot of friend groups hanging around, some sitting in the shadow of the large trees that grew right beside the large asphalted area. Changbin, being a local, actually recognised most of the people around, they were the same faces he’d see every day in the park. The skateboard park itself was quite nice. It was large, a lot of ramps, rails, halfpipes and bunch of other stuff for some tricks – you name it, the park got it. It also had a huge concrete wall on the other side just for graffitis, which also casted a nice shadow over the reels. Well, the graffitis were actually everywhere, but Changbin didn’t mind. He liked them, they were art. The more illegal art was, the better, in his opinion. 

”What did you do this time?” Chan asked. He was the responsible one out of eight of them. Changbin jumped off his deck and grabbed his board by stepping on it’s tail.   
”Bumped onto some stranger”, he admitted and sat between Jisung and Hyunjin. Chan handed him a bandage and Changbin slapped it on his knee, not bothering to clean it. He’d clean it at home and hope it wasn’t going to get infected.   
”Looks like more than just a bump.” Woojin said, a playful smile on his face.   
”Well, he walked under my board. Not my fault.” The older boy rolled his eyes, knowing damn well Changbin was the cause of the crash. Changbin reached for his phone in his pocket before it hit him – his earphones. He closed his eyes for a moment and groaned, receiving questioning glances from his friends.   
”I dropped my earbuds.” Jisung snorted at his bad luck and Changbin almost hit him on the shoulder. He just hoped the boy had picked them up or the buds would be on the street when he went back. Both seemed quite unlikely (and, to be honest, if Changbin were the boy, he would just throw the earphones in the trash to get back at him). 

The boys continued their light conversation about the new Supreme skateboard decks. Changbin was more of an Antihero guy himself, but Jisung and Jeongin were both hyped about the new boards. Changbin let his mind wander, not joining the conversation (also known as not interrupting Jisung’s ten-minute speech of why Supreme was the best brand out there). Soon he realized he was thinking about the boy. He was around his age, probably, and Changbin was pretty sure he had just moved in the area. Would make sense, unless the boy was a weird stalker and was just hanging around someone’s front yard. And the funny accent. Maybe he was from overseas?   
”Anyone feel like half-pipe today?” Seungmin butted in the discussion and Changbin raised his hand along with Chan and Hyunjin. Soon the four of them left the table, leaving the remaining four in a heated, every day occuring battle of which was better – Marvel or DC. 

 

* * * 

 

The halfpipe was already taken, so they ended up in the quarterpipes. Changbin’s leg was still a bit sore, but it didn’t stop him from succeeding in a couple of frontside ollies, madonnas and tuck knees. Basics, really, but Changbin wasn’t feeling like slamming against the asphalt for the second time today. Chan was doing some sick tricks with his board, earning himself an applause from the group next to them. Well, Chan was pretty famous in the scene anyway, he had won a lot more competitions than Changbin and made a name out of himself. And he was cool, at least to the people who didn’t personally know him. Tattoos and grey, curly hair, a university student and a slight accent to his speech. Wait, the accent! It was sort of same with the boy, only the boy’s was a lot heavier.   
”What’s bugging you today?” Seungmin had wheeled next to him and Changbin snapped out of his thoughts.   
”Nothing.” Changbin answered nonchalantly. Nothing was bugging him. What would be bugging him anyway? It was a nice sunny day and he was sweating in his Thrasher hoodie and he had lost his earphones.   
”Nothing my ass. You’re being oddly quiet.”  
”And you’re being too nosy. Everything’s okay, I’m just a little bit tired and this heat is killing me”, Changbin said, truthfully.   
”You do realize you’re the only one wearing a black hoodie at this weather.”   
”Yes.”  
”Dumbass. Dropping!” Seungmin shouted the last word and made his way down the ramp. Yeah, Changbin was a dumbass and he was going to die, so he took off the hoodie only to reveal a white t-shirt underneath it. Not so stylish anymore, but maybe Changbin wouldn’t die of heat. He tied the hoodie around his waist and skated down the ramp, following Seungmin.

 

* * * 

 

”Did you notice that we have new neighbors? They have a son around your age.” Changbin’s mother pushed a glass of orange juice over the table for him. He reached for the glass, took a sip and quirked his brow at his mother. She meant the boy from yesterday, didn’t she.  
”Yeah. Parks from the next door said they’re from Australia or something, moved here because of the father’s new job.” A small neighbourhood, even smaller social circles. Everyone knew everyone, everyone knew everyone’s business, and your neighbor’s cousin’s grandmas’s cat probably knew your business, too. That was one thing Changbin didn’t like the area where he lived, it was like a small village inside a city. He wanted out, he wanted to live somewhere no one besides his actual friends knew him.   
”Maybe you should go say hi, you could get a new friend.” His mother smiled at him, Changbin looked at her, almost puzzled. Did his mother even know how teenage boys worked? You couldn’t just go and knock some new neigbor’s door and be like ”Hey wassup let’s be friends” these days.   
”I’m pretty sure I have enough friends already.” Changbin simply said and finished his juice before taking his cereal bowl to the dishwasher. His father was at work as per usual, his mom had a small holiday.   
”You know, the new boy probably doesn’t.” She called out after Changbin left the kitchen to put some shoes on. The boys were at the ramps already, he knew it (a heavy sleeper, he might have slept over his alarm yet again), so he was in a tiny haste. Changbin looked at himself in the hallway mirror. He looked cool. Ripped jeans, black vans, black hoodie with the Vetements logo (fake, Changbin would never have money for a real one, but no one needed to know that) and a black cap on top of it all. He was truly a man of many colors. Black, a slightly lighter black and really dark grey.  
”We’re watching a movie at Woojin’s, I’m gonna be late.” He bid his goobyes to his mother before flinging through the front door. Grab the board, kick some speed, text the group I’m coming, the routine. Except this time Changbin texted before jumping on his board. Maybe, just maybe he had actually learned something from yesterday. He hadn’t found his earphones, though. Either someone had taken them or the boy had them. Changbin kinda wished for the latter, if the pierced boy had his earplugs then Changbin had a chance to get them back. 

It was cloudy, yet still warm. Changbin didn’t complain, now the sun wouldn’t scorch him alive. He kicked more speed, leaned back on his deck and let the slight wind sweep his bangs all over. It was probably going to rain at the evening, the sky looked a little heavy. Down the small hill, his hands were in his pockets. He slowed down a bit, not going as fast as the last time. The next house was the one where the boy lived. He looked around, slowed a little bit more, but no one was outside. Changbin frowned, he really didn’t have time to go and knock on the door (also known as he didn’t have the guts to do that, but he’d never admit that to himself). Well, maybe he’d be outside some other day or somethi-  
”Hey!” Changbin’s head whipped around and he almost lost his balance, yet again. The pierced boy jogged from the garage, a monkey wrench in his hand. Changbin stopped his board and the boy walked up to him, taking something from his pocket.  
”Well at least you didn’t jump form the bushes this time.” The snarky comment left Changbin’s lips before he had time to think. The boy completely disregarded it, just smirked at him;  
”You dropped these yesterday.” Oh thank lord jesus, they were Changbin’s earphones.   
”Thanks”, he mumbled took them before stuffing them in his pocket. Changbin looked at the boy a little better now that he wasn’t bleeding and angry. He had a red plaid shirt on, sleeves rolled up to his elbows. There were stains on the shirt. The same torn jeans, ragged sneakers with some marker writings on them. Changbin remembered his mother’s words.   
”So, uhh- you’re new here?” he asked, looked at the boy’s face. He was still quite intrigued by the piercings.  
”Yeah. We moved here like a week ago.” Changbin noticed the freckles on the boy’s face, as well as the grease stains on his forehead and cheek. And the kiss curl that kept on hanging over his eyes. He was also slightly taller than Changbin.   
”Nice. From Australia?”   
”Yeah, how did you guess?” Oh, my neighbor’s neighbor most certainly didn’t stalk you and your family and your neighbors neighbor didn’t tell my mother about it and it most certainly didn’t spread like a wilfdfire in the neigborhood.  
”Oh, a lucky guess. One of my friends is from Australia and he has the same kind of accent.” Nice save, Changbin.   
”Oh, cool.”   
”Yeah.”  
”Yeah.” And an awkward silence. Not such a nice save after all. Changbin smacked himself in the face in his mind.  
”I- uhh- I should probably get going, my friends are waiting for me.” Changbin felt his face heating up.   
”Yeahh, I gotta go back to.. fix… the car.” The boy stuttered, searched for the words a little and pointed back at the garage. He clearly wasn’t used to speaking Korean. Changbin lifted his other foot on the board before turning back to the boy.  
”See you around then?” He smiled slightly at him. The boy scratched the back of his neck, smiling, or more like smirking with a playful glint in his eyes. He had a pink Hello Kitty bandaid on his elbow that he had hurt yesterday in their crash and that was… somehow really cute in Changbin’s opinion.  
”Yeah, see you.” And with that Changbin was off as he kicked some pace from the ground. Soon he reached the turn, now even more late than before. Then again, he was kind of glad he had stopped and talked to the new boy. Must be quite awful to be in a new country and culture without any friends. Except maybe he had friends, how would Changbin know. Maybe he wasn’t lonely and now Changbin was just making a fool of himself. And, well, the boy looked really cool and popular, if Changbin was being honest. Piercings and orange hair and freckles and stylish clothes, the boy probably already had a whole circle around him. But hey, they were neighbors now, so it was required for them to at least say hi and know eat other’s names. Then it hit Changbin;

He forgot to ask his goddamn name. 

 

* * *

 

”That was fucking sick man!” Jisung shouted from the ramps as Changbin wheeled off the handrails after a darkslide. Definitely not an easy one, so Changbin was pretty damn proud of himself. Some people around him clapped. This was what he liked the most in skateboarding – the community. Everyone was so supportive, especially in this part of the city. There were no fights or any hassle like that, just chill skateboarders doing their thing and having fun. Sure, there were the smaller circles and friend groups, and in a group of many people some were always dickheads, but it was still very nice. Changbin wouldn’t have changed a thing. 

The first droplets hit the ground when Changbin flopped down next to Jeongin, the youngest of their friendgroup. Hyunjin whined, he was on a roll and had a really good day, and now the rain was going to interrupt him. A small rain wouldn’t matter, but the sky looked like it was going to rip apart any minute now, and the ramps weren’t very safe when they were wet.   
”So, who’s in for that movie?” Woojin asked, stepped on the tail of his board and grabbed the other end, swinging it under his arm. Everyone raised their hand. Soon enough plans were made, they would stop in a store on their way to Woojin who lived in the same area as Changbin, only on another street. He, Woojin and Jisung lived in the same neighbourhood, the others lived elsewehere. The skatepark was in the center of where they all lived, and that was how they had met each other in the first place. 

The group didn’t make it to the store before the sky ripped apart. The heavy rain had drenched them completely before they got in to the market, Hyunjin had pushed Seungmin in a puddle and Seungmin had pulled the other boy with him and then Chan had skated on a fucking pole and Changbin really couldn’t believe he really was the best one out of the eight of them. All of them grabbed their boards (skate in the shop and you get literally thrown out, Jisung was the one with experience of that), they knew the shop assistant was sick of them since they were regulars and noisy and always dirty. The group made their way to the snack aisle, trying to choose some chips for the evening. Needless to say, it wasn’t an easy task for a group of eight.   
”Definitely Lay’s!”  
”Yes, unless it’s salt and vinegar.”  
”But they’re the best!”  
”You and your taste buds are wrong.”   
”I want popcorn.”  
”Jeongin wants popcorn. We’re getting popcorn.”   
”What are we watching?” Changbin asked, and got himself a cacophony of answers in return.  
”Horror!”  
”Scifi.”  
”Horror!”  
”Definitely not horror!”  
”Comedy!”  
”We watched a comedy you recommended last time and it was horrible, Jisung.” Changbin almost elbowed his best friend accidentally in the guts while getting his favorite chips.   
”Jisung has a bad taste, we’ll exclude him from the decision making.” Hyunjin announced.  
”Oh c’mon, the movie wasn’t that bad.” Jisung argued back, defending his precious comedy film.   
”Yes it was. Let’s watch Fast and Furious.”  
”We have seen them like a hundred times each.” Chan butted in, a bag of chips in his hand.  
”Those are awful.”  
”I dont care, I’m an adult and I’m going to get my own bag of chips.”   
”Says the adult who skateboarded to a pole like ten minutes ago.”  
”Shut up I was making sure Seungmin didn’t drown.”  
”In a puddle?”  
”Seriously, what are we watching?”   
”We haven’t watched any horror in ages!”   
”Yeah but Jeongin is like five.”  
”I’m seventeen.”  
”Seungmin, we know you’re scared of horror movies, you can just hide yourself behind Hyunjin and cuddle him like you always do.” Both of the boys flushed beet red, Changbin snorted. They were obvious – and completely oblivious about each other’s feelings.   
”Fine.” Seungmin muttered, before turning away to choose his snacks (or more like to hide his red face). Hyunjin looked like he wanted to kill Changbin on the spot.   
”Hey, let’s watch The Conjuring!” Woojin suggested.   
”It’s boring.”  
”You’re boring.”  
”What about Paranormal Activity?”  
”Jisung, do you seriously ever watch any actually good movies?”  
”Uhh, excuse me?”

All of the boys turned around to see who had the audacity to interrupt their important discussion. To Changbin’s complete and utter surprise, it was the boy, his new neighbor, looking at them with a slight smirk and a quirk of an eyebrow. Changbin was taken aback and about to say something before Jisung bursted next to him.  
”Felix! My man!” What? Felix who? Wait, this odd pierced boy was called Felix? Felix. Well, the name somehow suited him. And how in the hell did Jisung know his name?  
”Hey, Jisung”, the pierced boy, Felix, smiled at Jisung, before looking at Changbin.   
”Hey to you too, odd neighbor who doesn’t look where he rides with his skateboard.” Changbin felt the tips of his ears turn pink.  
”H-he- I didn-” But Felix just smiled at him, beaming like a hundred suns. There weren’t vaseline stains on his face anymore and his shirt had been changed to a white tee and a vintage-looking denim jacket, full of different kinds of patches. One of them read ’That isn’t very punk rock of you’.  
”If you really want to watch a good horror movie, then you should watch The Boy. Or Babadook, if you like psychological films which I really doubt”, Felix said before walking past Changbin, also grabbing a bag of chips for himself. He smelled good. Why did Changbin think he smelled good? Also, the kiss curl was still hanging over his forehead, and he pretty much looked like he walked straight out of Crybaby. Except, you know, the piercings on his face and ears. Changbin was quite sure the heartbreakers writers always described in their books were all based on Felix.   
”And… may I ask who are you?” Seungmin was the first one to open his mouth. A slight pink flushed on the apples of Felix’s cheeks.   
”Y’all this is Felix, he moved in the area a couple of days ago.” Jisung introduced the boy. Felix smiled, lifted his hand for a small wave.   
”I happened to walk past their house when they were unloading the moving truck and helped carry some boxes in.” Jisung explained how they had met and slung his arm around Felix’s shoulders. Of course Jisung had helped, he would probably help a murderer to dig a grave and be like ”Oh, no problem man, let me just grab a shovel and help!”  
”My sister pretty much fell for you. She’s been asking about you ever since.” Felix laughed at Jisung.   
”Well, you should totally give her my number then!”   
”She’s eight.”   
”Bugger.” The group laughed, some stiffness in the air. Naturally, it was always a little awkward when a new person suddenly appeared out of nowhere in a group of close friends. 

”So, you skate?” Hyunjin asked, measuring the punkboy from head to toe. He was always the worst when it came to meeting new people, but that was just because he was protective over his friends. Changbin thought it was kind of heart-warming.   
”Nah, I’m a walking disaster. Imagine me on a skateboard and you get a whole catastrophe.” Hyunjin snorted, quite unsure whether he liked Felix or not. Felix smiled, he could probably see the tall boy’s hesitation. Did this boy do anything else but smile?   
”But I do paint graffitis, so I’m not completely out of the scene.” Some ooh-ing could be heard. Changbin knew it, his other friends were getting interested. Chan and Minho were especially fans of graffitis and art in general, and hey, a real local skateboard group always had someone who could paint some sick-ass graffitis. None of them could, so maybe this boy would be their saviour.   
”Cool! Any particular style?” Chan asked, his face lit up.   
”Anything works. The more colour and meaning, the better. I’m not a big fan of plain text graffitis.”  
”I like this guy already!” Seungmin voiced.   
”Same.”   
”So, you got any plans tonight?” Jisung asked, looking at Felix hopefully. He shook his head.   
”Good, you’re coming with us. And if the movie you recommended is good, you re officially in the group!” Felix looked a little confused, but quickly found his permanent smile again. That somehow irked Changbin so much. Why was this boy smiling all the time and why was everyone under some kind of spell that they accepted him so eagerly when they usually just dismissed everyone and why was he looking at Changbin with that irking glint in his eyes again? 

 

* * *

 

So Felix did come with them. And soon enough Chan found out that Felix was from Australia and now they had to listen to dumb accents spoken way too overexaggeratedly. Changbin was walking in the tail of the group, just following everyone else. Hyunjin and Seungmin were in their own little world, stealing glances and smiling like idiots, and everyone else was so enthralled with Felix they had no time to tease the little lovebirds. If you could say that, since neither of them had the guts to say anything. Changbin had his hand in his pockets and his board under his arm, looking like he was lost in thoughts. But he wasn’t, he was actually listening to the ongoing conversation (not the lovebirds, the others). He learned a few things; Felix listened mostly to punk, not a surprise at this point anymore, and his favorite band was Sex Pistols. His favorite graffiti artist was Banksy, but not because he was popular, but because he actually had good paintings, and most of them were illegal. He used to live in Sydney, he had a nice group of friends back there, he was a year younger than Changbin. And he wrote poetry (”Show us!” ”Absolutely not.”). 

They got to Woojin’s house after a 15-minute walk. The evening went on and sure enough, the movie was good. Seungmin hid behind Hyunjin the whole time, Changbin had to sit next to Felix and listen to Jisung and him whispering to each other all the time. Seungmin screamed at the end, startling Jeongin who dropped the popcorn bowl, which scared Jisung who almost hit Felix in the face. Yeah, the boy was apparently officially in their group now. He ended up being anything but shy despite him stammering and searching for words once in a while, laughing at anything even slightly funny (his laugh was really contagious, Changbin had to admit that) and being a great moodmaker in general.

Walking back home felt weird. Usually it was just Changbin and Jisung, but now a new person had joined, a duo turned to a trio. Changbin didn’t like it. Jisung was babbling about movies, yet again, before he asked the question he had probably been pressed about the whole night.   
”Marvel or DC?” Felix looked at him, eyebrows raised and a small grin on his lips.   
”Depends. If I want some feel-good fun then Marvel, if I want some dark and more reality-ish then DC.”   
”That’s a bad answer! You need to pick either!” Jisung and his big mouth.   
”DC.” Changbin actually smiled for the first time the whole evening; ”Hah! Finally someone with a taste”, he said, looking at Felix. The boy smiled back at him (Changbin’s stomach kind of dropped).  
”No way, I trusted you, man!” Jisung whined way too theatretically.   
”Well, Marvel has the best movies but DC’s comics are better. And the background stories are better. And they have Poison Ivy.” Felix defended his opinion. Jisung frowned and stuck his tongue out, Felix just giggled. Of course he did. 

Soon Jisung parted ways with them, Felix and Changbin continued their little evening stroll. The rain had stopped and the sky was clearing, the air smelled fresh. It was refreshing after a week of heat and dust-filled dry air. The boys didn’t speak. They didn’t have anything to discuss. Changbin was trying to find something to say, something that could make the other boy talk till they got to their street and make the awkward atmosphere disappear.   
”I can hear your brain ticking from here, you know.” Felix said, with that small signature smirk on his face.  
”These kind of nights remind me of Sydney. I used to live in a similar kind of area, a few miles from the centre. You really learn to appreciate the silence of the night after a long day of all the noise pollution.” It was true. Changbin hummed, signaled that he was listening. Thank god the other boy was the one to start the conversation.   
”This city has a different feel to it, though. Sydney was… friendlier. This city is more distant. Or it’s just this area or something, I don’t really know yet.”   
”Could be the area. Everyone’s judging, no matter what you do.” Changbin said. For the first time today he wasn’t even slightest bit of annoyed at the freckled boy.   
”Yeah. The grandma opposite of my house almost had a heart attack when he first saw me.” Changbin chuckled.   
”Yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised if she was scared of you now. A while ago she complained to my mom that I had boosted music too loud and my skateboard was destroying her flowerbeds. I don’t ever skate at her side of the road and I always wear earplugs when I’m alone.” Felix giggled and glanced at Changbin.   
”Yeah, I noticed. They were full of earwax.”   
”No they weren’t! I clean my ears every night.” Changbin lightly pushed Felix on the shoulder.   
”Well finally I get some stupid facts out of you! You were so silent the whole night.” Felix had noticed?   
”Oh?”   
”Yeah.” 

They had arrived to Felix’s house. Changbin dropped his board on the ground, intending to skate back home.   
”Well, see you around?” A smile formed to Felix’s lips when he turned to Changbin.   
”Yeah, see you. If you’re looking at your phone the next time you skate over I’m running under you again.”   
”So you admit you did it on purpose!” Felix giggled and stepped a couple of steps backwards, almost dancing with lightness in his feet. Changbin wondered for a second if Felix had used to dance back in Sydney.   
”Maybe.”

 

* * *

 

Felix had a habit of trying to push the kiss curl away from his face, only for it to return back over his forehead. He also scrunched his nose every single time he laughed really hard. He knew stupid little facts about everything. He was a history nerd. He could fix cars, his father had taught him. All of his jeans were ripped or torn because that was his way of rebelling against his mother. He let his little sister draw over his freckles so that the tiny dots made up constellations. He also had small tattoos, and Changbin doubted if anyone else had noticed them. One of them was on his middlefinger. Changbin couldn’t make out anything else except it was a word. Felix also had one on his forearm, though Changbin had only seen a tiny peek of it. But he was pretty sure it was some sort of small picture. 

Changbin was laying in his bed, earphones in his ear, music playing so loud he couldn’t hear anything from the outside. He didn’t want to hear anything. He wanted to close off the world. His parents were fighting again. Third time this week, and it was Thursday. And Changbin was thinking about Felix. Why on earth was he thinking about Felix? Yeah, he was kind of glad he was in their little circle of friends now, he was nice, a little dumb sometimes (or it was the language barrier) and quite funny at times. It felt like he filled in a part the other boys didn’t even know was missing. And he was clingy, and Jisung had apparently switched best friends and was hanging out with Felix all the time. Well, not exactly, but Changbin might just be a tiny bit of jealous. And he was thinking of Felix. The freckled boy had been occupying his thoughts a lot lately, and Changbin didn’t know why, and that made him anxious. 

Felix just… had a different vibe in him. Maybe it was the Sydney that hadn’t completely left him yet, but it was pretty clear to Changbin that this wasn’t the kind of friend group Felix had been with before. He always seemed a little surprised when the boys dragged him along. He didn’t know how to skateboard (and refused to try when Minho had asked him), but he always ended up sitting on the rails, clapping and cheering for everyone (and he had also became their medical kit number one, the one who always carried bandaids with him). Changbin wanted to ask Felix about his friends back in his homeland, but didn’t dare. And why would Felix even tell him? He was clearly closer with Chan and Jisung. Especially Chan, but then again, Changbin wasn’t surprised, they were from the same country and Felix was kind of the link back to his homeland for Chan. 

Okay, he was jealous. Just a tiny bit. But why, why was he jealous? It wasn’t like he had a crush on the boy. No way! Changbin didn’t just ’get crushes’, he even rarely found anyone interesting enough. But why was he so jealous all of a sudden of Felix’s attention? Or maybe he was jealous of Jisung? Psh, that boy was as stable as the wheater when it came to people. One day he was clinging to Minho, then to Changbin, then to Minho, then to Woojin, then to Minho again (yes, Changbin had noticed). Was Felix even that interesting? Okay, yes he was. Tiny tattoos, scars on knees, a denim jacket full of patches that said something controversial. And he didn’t talk about himself much, he always asked everyone else about themselves. Felix was quite a mystery. And a really cute one. No, wait no, he, no. Cute? Well, yeah, freckles and plump lips and that fucking kiss curl that always hung over his forehead and the way his eyes turned to little crescents when he laughed and toothy smile and the fact that his denim jacket was way too large for him and oh my god maybe Changbin thought he was cute. But that’s it. It wasn’t a crush. Changbin wasn’t gay. But Felix was cute. 

Changbin groaned and hid his face in his palms. 

 

* * * 

 

Chan, Woojin and Jisung were out of the town. Minho was helping his grandma with baking, Jeongin was at his schoolmate’s house playing some games, Hyunjin and Seungmin were god knows where being disgusting, neither of them answered Changbin in their group chat. Well, Changbin wasn’t exactly sure if he even wanted to hang out with them now that Hyunjin had grown some balls and finally confessed to Seungmin (apparently Hyunjin had shouted the confession at his face because he was so nervous and Seungmin had just laughed at him before actually realising what Hyunjin had just said). Felix wasn’t answering either, which made Changbin kind of relieved, he didn’t want to hang out with Felix any more than he had to. Not because he didn’t like him, he just wanted his… temporary emotion-like things to pass by faster. 

Changbin decided to go for a nice evening stroll with his board. Just to wheel around the city a little, he didn’t want to spend the whole day inside. It was a nice evening, the sun was setting soon, the sky was clear and it was warm. Changbin was wearing only a black tee and black jeans (not ripped, yet, give it a week and they would be torn from the knees). He had his earphones on, blasting some trendy rap-music. The skatepark was pretty quiet, Changbin knew there was a bigger skateboarding competition going on in the biggest park in the city tonight, so most of the people were there. He would have wanted to go, but since no one answered him, he didn’t. Then again, it was quite relieving to spend some time alone. He loved his friends, yes, but he needed some time alone, too. And yes, he was a little overwhelmed nowadays by a certain person who still looked like a 50’s greaser and Changbin had never been the one to care about 50’s aesthetics but he might have watched Crybaby and Greaser and listened to some Sex Pistols and Misfits and Green Day just because of that one person and Changbin still swore he only liked Felix as a friend but thought he was cute. 

”Hey skaterboy!” Changbin almost had a heart attack, he didn’t notice he was in front of Felix’s house already. He quickly turned to search the origin of the voice, but didn’t find anything. He stopped his board, confused.  
”Look up!” And there Felix was, sitting on the fucking roof of their house.   
”How did you-?” Felix signed at the other side of their house. Changbin followed to the direction Felix had pointed and sure enough, there was a ladder leading to the roof. Changbin swallowed, contemplated for a second. It would be rude to turn back now, but this was also exactly what Changbin had tried to avoid. He didn’t want to spend time with Felix. Or did he? His heart sure was beating a little too fast for his liking. Could also be that Felix’s house was two storeys high and Changbin wasn’t so in love with high places.   
”You can just say if you’re scared, I won’t laugh I promise.” Felix voiced from above. Well, Changbin sure as hell wasn’t gonna let Felix think he was scared. He left his board next to the ladder and started climbing up. 

The roof was a lot higher than it had seemed, and carefully Changbin sat next to Felix, knees almost touching. He gripped on what he could, that being the roof tiles. Felix, on the other hand was sitting peacefully, leaning a little foward, elbows resting on his bent knees. He was wearing the same tee as when they had first met, his hair was pushed back and his All Stars were of different pair. And he had a lit cigarette between his fingers.  
”Aren’t you underage or something?” Changbin asked.   
”Yeah, a whole three months.” Felix had a different tone in his voice than normally. He wasn’t smiling, he looked a little tired. And Changbin sure as hell didn’t know the younger boy smoked.   
”It’s not a habit, don’t worry. It’s more of a crave for nostalgia.” It was like Felix had read is thoughts. He offered the cigarette to Changbin, who was surprised, to say the least. He had never smoked in his entire life, he knew that Chan smoked when the youngers weren’t around (relieves stress, as he had said), but Changbin had never dared to try. He was actually a little wuss when it came to anything even the slightest bit of illegal. His mother had warned him about anything addicting, especially drugs, since Changbin had lost a relative to them a couple of years back. The only addicting substance he had experience of was alcohol.

But he was not gonna be a wuss when Felix was around, so he took the cigarette between his index and forefinger, stared at it for a second before bringing it to his lips and taking a drag. Then Changbin realised that he really had never smoked a cigarette before and this had been a huge mistake and started coughing like a madman to get the smoke out of his lungs. He handed the cigarette back to Felix quickly and gripped the other boy’s leg when he felt like the strong coughs could throw him off the roof any second. When the fit was over he wiped his eyes, still trying to catch his breath again. Felix bursted out laughing beside him, bright and vibrant.   
”I’m sorry, if I had known you’ve never smoked before I wouldn’t have offered.” He said between the giggling. Changbin was mad at him for laughing for a second before he looked at the pierced boy, who was looking back at him with that adorable toothy smile of his.   
”Well, first times for everything,” Changbin snorted, ”now I don’t need to try ever again.” His mouth tasted like ash, which was a not so pleasant taste.   
”What did you mean by nostalgia?” Changbin asked, curious, before he realized he was still holding on to Felix’s leg and quickly removed his hand. The other boy didn’t seem to mind, though. The smile faltered a little on Felix’s face.   
”Oh, it just… brings me a lot of memories. Friends from Australia and things like that...” Felix told, looking back at the sunset. It was a pretty one, the sky was turning different shades of orange, pink and violet.   
”You must miss them a lot?” Changbin tried to look at the beautiful sight in front of him, but he really couldn’t tear his eyes away from Felix. The colours of the sky danced beautifully along his already sun-kissed complex, shadowing the little curves on his face. A slightly pointy nose, plump lips of which smoke was escaping from between. Long eyelashes and brown eyes, the sun was reflecting from them, making them look light brown. Changbin was pretty much enchanted.   
”Not really.”  
”Oh?”   
”I wasn’t exactly in the best kind of circles.” Changbin only lifted his eyebrows with a questioning look on his face. He didn’t want to press the answers out of Felix, but he was curious. What did he mean by ’best kind of circles’.   
”I uhh… got into a lot of trouble. Like actual trouble, not just some little mischiefs every now and then. I was part of the reason we moved away from Sydney.” Felix took the last drag before throwing the cigarette butt on the ground.   
”Shoplifting was the only serious thing I got caught, though. I’m underage, so I didn’t get any real consequences. And I didn’t shoplift just once, it was more of a habit. Also a way to stay in the circles. Breaking things was another thing I did, never got caught, luckily. Some officials’ cars, windows and other shit like that. Some drugs moved in the circles, too. Never fell for that one, I wasn’t that stupid and reckless.” Changbin didn’t know what to say. This honestly wasn’t what he had expected.   
”It was just stupid rebelling against the system, rebellion just for the sake of rebellion. We thought we were so cool and anticapitalist and anarchist. My mom was so worried I’d get in those kind of circles again so when she found out I had befriended you guys she almost cried out of relief. And I’m glad I found you guys, too. I regret what I did, a lot, even if I still have the anarchistic mindset.” ”I’m glad we found you, too.” Changbin blurted out. Felix smiled at him, Changbin smiled back, sincerely; ”And I’m… I’m glad you told me all this.”   
”Well, you were probably going to find out sooner or later. But… I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t tell the others yet.” Felix looked at him, not really smiling anymore. There was a bit of concern in his eyes.   
”I won’t.”   
”You promise?” Felix held out his pinky.  
”Promise.” Changbin interlocked his own pinky with Felix’s. And yanked the other boy’s hand a little closer to him, so he could see the little tattoo on the side of his index finger (and Felix’s hands were small, he noticed).   
”Anti?” The tattoo was messy and worn out, but still readable.   
”Opposed, against, a person opposed to a particular view or policy.” Felix explained. Changbin understood the meaning behind the tattoo and nodded.   
”Not your only one, I suppose?”   
”Nah.” He lifted the sleeve of his tee to reveal a sunflower tattoo on his left shoulder, then the words ’You call the shots, babe’ on his right forearm an above that, a bandage tattoo. On his thigh read ’Don’t waste your youth growing up’. Changbin was amazed.  
”Wait, how did you even-?”   
”They’re stick and poke tattoos. I’ve done all of them myself except for the sunflower. My only real friend back in Australia did it. And I did the same kind of tattoo for her, only she has a dandelion.”   
”That’s so freaking cool. But like… doesn’t it hurt and where do you get all the stuff and..?” Changbin loved tattoos, wanted some for himself, too, but doing one by himself sounded like a stupid idea that would cost him his arm.  
”You can buy the ink and the needle from the internet and the rest you can find from the nearest store. And no, it doesn’t hurt that much. It’s like the same when you scratch your knees when you fall on a ramp or something. It’s worth it.”   
”Cool.” Changbin apparently had a reduced vocabulary when he was with Felix. 

A comfortable silence fell between them. The sky had turned a lot darker now, the last colors of the sunset were pink and purple. Felix truly was a mystery, and Changbin wanted to get to know him better. Yeah, he admitted that to himself now. Felix was cute. Really, really cute. And Changbin shouldn’t be thinking that because he was definitely not crushing on Felix. A little interested, maybe, but nothing more.   
”Is there many people usually in the skatepark after twelve?” Felix asked out of the blue, looking at Changbin with a small smirk.   
”No? At least not today, there was a tournament at the central park.” Changbin was confused, what was the other planning?   
”Good. Let’s go then.” Felix stood up, stepped on the ladder like he totally wasn’t just standing on the roof of a two-storey house and began to climb down. Changbin followed him, definitely not as sure of his steps as the younger one. Once down, he grabbed his board, still confused. All of his questions were soon answered, when Felix returned from the inside of his house with a bag and two black hoodies. He threw the other one to Changbin before pulling his own over his head. Felix made sure the hood was securely covering his hair and most of his face.  
”We’re going to make some art. The graffitis in the park are really boring.” 

 

* * * 

 

It was five in the morning when Felix and Changbin stepped back from the concrete wall. Half of it had got a new paintjob, and so did both of the boys. There was red and white paint on Felix’s forehead and nose and a whole lot of other paints on his hoodie. Changbin wasn’t any better with white and blue streaks across his chest, and the hoodie wasn’t even his. Then again, it was Felix who had accidentally sprayed Changbin with the white paint and then they had started a paint war. The graffiti itself was a detailed painting of mother nature in her toxic machine-filled grave. Changbin had only been a mental support (and a physical support by piggybacking Felix when there were parts he couldn’t reach) and helped choose some colors, but otherwise the whole painting was Felix’s work. And it was breathtaking.   
”You sure weren’t kidding when you said you did graffitis. I honestly thought you meant only those messy word-things.” Changbin was astonished at the outcome. Felix chuckled, took the black spraypaint and quickly drew his signature, the letter A on the corner. He packed the remaining paints quickly back in his bag.   
”A for Anti?” Changbin asked.   
”Yeah. Now let’s go, I don’t want anyone seeing us.” 

The walk back to their neighborhood was quiet, but comfortable. They were both tired, Changbin was yawning all the time. He wasn’t really the type to stay up late, but this night had most definitely been worth it. They had had fun, Changbin didn’t remember when he had laughed so much during one night. Their hands and shoulders kept brushing against each other when they were walking, but Changbin decided to ignore it. And so did Felix. They finally reached the younger one’s house and Felix pulled his hood down, ruffling his hair (the kiss curl fell on his forehead again and Changbin died a little inside).   
”I would say see you tomorrow but I’m honestly going to sleep the whole day. But see you anyway.”  
”We should do this again sometime.” Changbin said before his brains completely registered his words. Felix giggled, Changbin mentally smacked himself in the face.   
”We totally should. Night.”   
”Good night.” Changbin continued his way home, carrying his skateboard. He knew some people sleeped with their windows open and would not appreciate the sounds of his skateboard at half past five in the morning. Changbin smiled to himself, he was feeling kiddy and fuzzy on the inside. Maybe, just maybe he had the tiniest crush on Felix. 

 

* * *

 

Two days later Changbin was knocking on Felix’s door. The other boys were back in town, and Jisung was in a hurry to get everyone in the skatepark. Changbin had a feeling of what the hurry was about.   
”Just a sec!” Changbin heard from other side of the door, and in a moment Felix opened it. It was windy so the punk boy was wearing the punkest clothing ever – his leatherjacket with studs all over it.   
”Wow. I never imagined a day where you would actually wait for me.” Changbin snorted at Felix’s words. Yeah. Maybe the night two days ago had something to do with it.   
”I’m a changed man. And Jisung told me to get you.”   
”Like he doesn’t tell that to you every single day.” Felix smirked at him and closed the door. They walked the rest of the journey chit-chatting since Felix didn’t skateboard.   
”You should at least give it a try.” Changbin tried to convince him.   
”Yeah, sure, I’d love to get my arm broken by a plank with wheels.”   
”I’ve never broken anything and trust me, I’ve fallen like a thousand times.”  
”And you’re not a walking pile of biohazardous waste.”   
”Way to call yourself trash.”   
”No wait let me take that back, you are a walking pile of biohazardous waste. But I’m a danger for the environment when I’m on any kinds of heels. You should have seen when I accidentally bicycled to a ditch full of water because there was a toad on the road.” Changbin chuckled at the imagine. That sounded exactly like something Felix would do.   
”Okay, okay, you win. But you should still try.”   
”Only if you teach me.” Felix winked at Changbin and giggled out loud. Changbin’s heart was going to burst out of his chest any second now (yeah, a tiny crush).   
”We’ll see about that.”

Soon they arrived to the skatepark, where they found their friends sitting in the same place as always.   
”Took you long enough, snails!” Jisung shouted when he spotted the pair.   
”Wow, Jisung, you have gotten creative with your namecallings!” Felix shot back. Changbin just smiled, for once he didn’t need to be the annoying one. They sat on the bench beside each other.  
”Shut it, carrot head, and look at that graffiti wall!” And sure enough, there was Felix’s creation.   
”Wow. What a masterpiece.” Changbin said, meaning every word of it.   
”I know, right! It’s so freaking cool compared to the earlier ones!” Jisung was clearly a fan of the artwork already.   
”It’s bloody amazing, and the thought behind it is very clever.” Chan voiced his opinion and Changbin stole a glance at Felix, who was grinning from ear to ear, a light tint on his cheeks. While everyone else was admiring the graffiti or talking about it, Felix looked back at Changbin and winked before lifting one finger to his lips as a sign of silence. Changbin winked back and nodded ever so unnoticeably. This was their little secret, and it was going to stay a secret until Felix would decide different. 

When the awe towards the new painting toned down, the boys made their way to the halfpipe. Felix was left alone in the table with Seungmin and Hyunjin, and Changbin felt sorry for him. Sure, right now they were chatting just fine but give it a moment or two, the little lovebirds would be in their own world yet again.   
”Bin, your turn!” Chan shouted from the other side of the pipe and Changbin pushed himself off the edge and slid down the ramp to the other side. He was just warming up and made a backside grab, then skated back to his side. Jisung was the next one to go, then Jeongin, Minho and Woojin.   
”Let’s play skate!” Jisung suggested. Changbin groaned, he hated that game, but the others complied so he really didn’t have other options. He sighed and rolled his eyes.  
”Fine.” The rules were simple. You chose yourself a trick, and if you failed it, it was the next players turn to show their own trick. If you succeeded, everyone else needed to try the same trick and if they missed, they got a letter S and the first one to get the whole word was the loser. Chan began, landing a perfect rocket air.   
”Not fair!” Jeongin whined since the trick was way out of his league. Changbin’s turn, he missed with flying colors and Jisung cackled at him. In the end the only other person to succeed in the trick was Minho. 

Changbin’s turn, he chose an easy one for himself. Rock ’n Roll, also landed perfectly. Of course Chan got it right, everyone else followed along. Jisung missed his own trick, Jeongin succeeded (but Changbin didn’t), Minho’s was a hard one again and Changbin might have missed it not-so-accidentally when he had noticed the begging stare Felix had given him from the benches. So Changbin missed the next one. And the next one. And then his own and lost the game.   
”Oh man, today sure isn’t my day.” He said with a sarcastic tone when he skated down the ramp. He ignored the look Woojin gave him and wheeled back to the trio sitting on the benches.   
”Hey, punk, are you ready for your first lesson?” Felix looked at him a little surprised, then back at the pair next to him and rose to his feet.   
”No, but I guess it’s better than watching those two eating each other’s faces.” (”Hey!” Hyunjin shrieked after him.) 

Changbin tailed his board, grabbed it and they walked to an area without any ramps or other obstacles. It was quite silent in this part of the park, since only amateurs used it to learn some bascis. And now Changbin was there with Felix, who was looking at the board very suspiciously as Changbin placed it on the ground.   
”If I break my arm or get even a scratch on my pretty face I’m making you pay.” He said with a serious tone. Changbin chuckled.   
”Sure, pretty boy. Now which one is your leading foot?” Changbin couldn’t believe he had just called Felix pretty boy outloud. His ’dark and mysterious’ image just flew out of the window the second he was alone with the orange-haired boy. Felix looked at him with a questioning look.   
”Your stronger foot. The one you start walking with and kick conservatives’ asses.” Felix snorted, lifted his left leg. Changbin was right-footed, so this might get a little harder than he had thought.  
”Okay, now step on the board with it, just over the wheels”, he explained and held his other hand out. Felix grasped it and stepped on the deck, other foot following.   
”This is horrible and I’m going to die.” Felix had a death grip on Changbin’s hand.   
”Now just get used to it, step on it, move your feet.” The pierced boy did as Changbin advised with tense legs. Slowly, but surely the deck under Felix’s feet became more familiar and the boy regained his confidence.   
”I’m going to let go.” Changbin said and Felix looked at him almost terrified. Still, he let go of Changbin’s hand, keeping his balance.   
”You feeling alright?” the older asked. Felix was pacing back and forth on the deck, arms on his sides.   
”Y-yeah I guess...” 

Changbin took a few steps back so that he was out of Felix’s reach.   
”Try to push some speed from the ground.”   
”Are you fucking kidding me?”   
”No. Just do it, you’re not going to die.” Carefully Felix turned a little, placed his other foot on the ground.   
”You better not laugh when I fall.” he said, before kicking the ground softly. The deck moved a couple of centimeters.   
”Of course not. Calm down with your kicks, Tony Hawk, this is not a competition.” Felix shot a death glare at Changbin before trying it out again, this time kicking a little harder. The deck moved a little more this time, and surprisingly enough, Felix didn’t fall.   
”See? Not so bad. Now try to kick speed and then place your leg behind your other leg. I’ll be here all the time.” Felix took a deep breath before kicking some speed again, carefully placed the leg behind the other. Changbin could see it right away, the leg was too close, Felix wasn’t in balance and quickly he stepped closer. He was right, next thing he knew, Felix was laying in his arms, board wheeling a couple of meters away from them. The pierced boy was looking up at him, blushing a little.   
”Oh my, looks like I just fell for you.” Changbin got startled and dropped Felix. Accidentally.   
”Ow! My butt!”   
”Bad puns get yourself hurt.” He glared at Felix. The older masked it all under the joke. Felix did not just say that stupid pun outloud and Changbin’s heart did not beat like crazy in his chest because of Felix’s stupid pun. It was a joke, nothing serious. Felix was never serious except when they were completely alone.   
”Again.” Changbin ordered.   
”Your bitchface is really scary, mister teacher.” Felix smiled at him. Changbin snorted, held a hand out again to help Felix back on his feet.   
”C’mon. I’m gonna make you a better skateboarder than Chan is.” 

Little did the two of them know, Chan and Woojin were exchanging knowing looks back in the ramps. 

 

* * * 

 

Sunny evening, the nine boys were sitting on some blankets, passing the bottle and laughing at everything. Felix was leaning against Changbin’s shoulder, a grin on his face. He took a sip, or more like chugged half of the bottle down his throat.  
”This clearly isn’t the first time for Felix.” Chan laughed from the opposide side of the circle.   
”You have no idea.” Felix winked at him (Changbin noticed the ever so small falter of his smile) before giving the bottle to Changbin. It was some cheap liquor, definitely not the best kind. And definitely not their only bottle. Changbin took a swig and passed the bottle to Jisung. Minho was already tipsy, he had the worst tolerance of them all. Chan had the best (not a surprise, knowing how much university students partied). Changbin looked at Felix, who had a red nose and flushed cheeks because of the alcohol (the cutest). Right now he was laughing at something Woojin had said. Chan played some music from his travel speaker. It was perfect, all of it.   
”You know you’re really cute.” Changbin turned to Felix amused with a raised eyebrow. Felix was staring at him, chewing his lip ring.   
”Thanks?” Changbin laughed, not sure how to react. Drunk Felix was the worst kind of Felix, apparently. (”Changbin really can’t take a hint, can he?” ”Shut up, Seungmin, you were even worse with Hyunjin.”)   
”Yeah, your nose is red and it’s really cute.” Felix had a slight slur to his speech.   
”Yeah, and you’re drunk.” Changbin said, before turning back to Jisung who was explaining about the upcoming skate competition. 

Changbin felt some shuffling next to him, and then Felix pressed his head against Changbin’s lap. Changbin looked at him surprised, but Felix was just smiling, his hair slightly a mess. The dark was approaching slowly.  
”Don’t fall asleep then.” Changbin said, placed his hand over the other boy.   
”Nah. I’m going to stare at your cute face.” He rolled his eyes, not showing any signs of his heart almost exploding out of his chest or the fact that his ears were probably bright red. Thank god it was getting dark and he was wearing a cap.   
”Hey, do you want a stick and poke tattoo? I have some leftover ink and a needle.”   
”Felix, you’re drunk and I’m not gonna let you tattoo me when you’re drunk.”   
”No, dumbass, when I’m sober.”   
”I’ll think about it.”   
”Good, cutie. I have some designs you would probably like.” 

 

* * *

 

Changbin was laying on Felix’s bed, his leg on the other boy’s lap while he was tracing a picture on his ankle. Felix had a nice room. It wasn’t big, but it was really cozy. The walls were yellow-toned white and the room was well lit with huge windows. A writing desk was on the other side, the bed took most of the room on the other. There were some band posters on the walls, some pictures hanging here and there. Felix also had some plants on his windowsill. He just kept surprising Changbin.   
”Alright, this is going to hurt and you will want to move your leg but if you do that I’m gonna stab this needle through your leg. Got it?” Changbin looked at Felix, adjusted the pillow under his head.   
”Go for it.” And so Felix did. 

It hurt like hell. Felix was poking his ankle with a needle, dipping it in ink every third poke. It was gonna be worth it, Changbin told himself as he gritted his teeth and busied himself with his phone. Changbin wasn’t that sensitive to pain, but the tattooing pain was really annoying. You just couldn’t push it in the back of your mind and ignore it, it just kept on irking you. Felix was humming some song Changbin didn’t recognise as he kept on poking the older one’s leg. The design Changbin had chosen was a skateboard. Obviously. But it was a focused one, cracked from the middle to remind Changbin of the fact that everything always turned out well after some struggling. Felix had drawn it in his own style, a graphic lineart. It was simple, but Changbin wanted it simple. 

The rain thrummed against the windows. At some point Changbin forgot about his phone, and just kept staring at Felix. He had tried to push his hair away form his face, but the curl, that same damn curl was still hovering over his forehead, as always. His brows were slightly furrowed from concentration. The freckles were now even darker than back when they had first met. How did Changbin even end up in this situation? Laying on his new neighbor’s bed, the neighbor poking his leg with a needle and some ink. If you had asked Changbin at the beginning of the summer about getting new friends, close friends even, he would have probably just shrugged. Never did he guess he would actually find someone that shared so many same interests with him, or someone he would have long, totally comfortable silences with. Changbin appreciated silence. It was important for a person to be silent and listen to the silence once in a while. Yeah. Maybe his tiny crush for Felix wasn’t so tiny anymore. 

He snapped out of his thoughts when Felix poked the needle on a sensitive spot. Changbin sucked in a breath through his teeth, nails digging to his phone.   
”Sorry.” Felix mumbled, but continued the poking in the same manner. It was kind of comforting that he kept up a steady pace instead of uneven pokes. After a while Felix spoke;  
”The first round is done. I need to do it like three more times, though.” Changbin closed his eyes and sighed. Yeah, he was going to take the pain.   
”You okay?” Changbin opened his eyes and Felix was looking at him with a worried expression.   
”Yeah, yeah, keep going.” 

It took a couple of hours to get the tattoo done, with some excessive cursing and Changbin chewing his lip so much that it almost bled, but it was finally done, and Changbin stood up from the bed, scuttling his way to the mirror. The tattoo was on the inner side of his leg, a little above the ankle. It looked a little gruesome, it was red and swollen and had some bloodstains on the side.   
”It’s… it’s perfect.” Changbin said after staring at the tattoo for a while.   
”Good. It’s going to fade a little and won’t look so black after a couple of months. Also, remember to put some lotion on it every day until it’s healed, or it’s going to look even uglier.” Felix told him. Changbin noticed the light blush on his face.  
”Thanks.” Changbin said, with a small smile on his lips. Felix smiled back, warmth spread across Changbin’s chest.   
”No problem. Just take good care of it.” 

 

* * *

 

”Hey, skaterboy!” Changbin heard the voice and turned his head to it’s direction. He was coming from Jisung’s, they had just finished their plans for the skateboard competition held next week. Felix was sitting on the rooftop once again, motioning Changbin to join him. He didn’t hesitate, not anymore. They had been doing this for a couple of times now, just hanging out, looking at the sunset. Felix had told him many things about himself, like that his only friend back in Australia had finally contacted him and he was worried about her, for instance. He had also shown him a couple of his more personal tattoos, one on his hipbone, other on his ankle. They had also talked about politics, the world and what was beyond the horizon. Changbin usually didn’t give two shits about topics like that, but something in the way Felix explained and handled things was so utterly compelling. And yeah, maybe the world sucked, politicians were dumb and had lost their ability to feel any empathy and no one knew what was beyond the horizon, but at least Changbin didn’t have to take it all alone now. 

He climbed up to sit next to Felix, knees touching. His movements weren’t so cautious anymore, he had got used to moving on the roof. The sun was setting, as it always was when they were sitting on the roof. It was slightly windy, but the wind was warm and freshening.   
”How’s your tattoo?” Felix asked after a minute of silence.   
”Healing. It’s not swollen anymore.” Changbin answered.   
”Good.” The silence fell over them like a blanket once again. Felix shuddered a little at the breeze, and he moved a little closer to Changbin. The older boy didn’t mind, quite the opposite, actually. He almost wrapped his other hand around the younger, but refrained himself. He didn’t want to be obvious. And he didn’t know if Felix even liked him. He was always clingy, no matter who was in question, so Changbin wasn’t that special. Yeah, they spent a lot of time together, but that still didn’t mean Felix had feelings fo him. 

”Are you a 2am or a 5am person?” Felix asked with a soft voice. It was a weird question. Nothing new, Changbin had learned that poets like Felix always asked some weird questions once in a while. Last time Felix had asked which colour would be Changbin’s favorite if he was blind.   
”What makes you think I’m a night person? I could be like a 5pm person.” Changbin had a tiny smirk stretched across his lips. He looked at Felix, who was looking at nothing and everything at the same time, staring into the horizon. Breathtaking, Changbin thought. He hoped Felix knew how beautiful he was.   
”Nah, you’re not peach ice tea or summer picnics or roses on the wall or swimming in the lake.” Felix leaned his head on Changbin’s shoulder and continued;  
”I think you’re a 5am person. Like dark circles under eyes and neon lights and flannels around waist and silver necklaces and vivid dreams. And evening drives and late night phonecalls.”   
”Sounds about right.” Changbin hummed. ”What are you then?”  
”I’m a 2am person. City lights from a high rise, denim jackets, indie concerts and procrastination. Classic movies. Poetry.” Changbin chuckled lightly and so did Felix. 

”Do you believe in soulmates?” Felix asked after a while again. Changbin thought about the question. He knew Felix wouldn’t take a light answer, he wanter a reason for everything. Changbin honestly didn’t know.   
”Depends. If souls are real, then why wouldn’t soulmates be? I’d love to think that somewhere someone is meant for you and they stick with you through thick and thin. But, you know, it’s kind of hard to believe that when your own parents aren’t an example of it.” Felix nodded. They had talked about their families before. Changbin’s was at a breaking point; his parents were fighting all the time and the divorce was just a couple of steps away. Felix’s just weren’t that succesful as parents, even though they loved each other very much.   
”Mhmm. It’s a pretty idea.” And silence. This is what he appreciated the most in Felix; they could just sit in the silence together. Be alone together, as Felix had said one night. 

”I can’t believe I’m the one who needs to do this.” Felix mumbled, lifted his head from Changbin’s shoulder. Changbin turned to look at him with a questioning look, only for Felix to place his fingers on Changbin’s chin. For a second he stared at the punkboy’s brown eyes and the next thing Changbin knew, there was a pair of soft lips pressing against his own. His breath hitched, he was taken aback, suddenly all of his brain activity came to a halt. Then he finally realized what was happening. Changbin closed his eyes, answered the kiss and leaned in a bit more. He could feel Felix’s liprings, they were colder than his plump lips (which were the softest thing Changbin had ever touched). He smelled like faint a mixture of mint and lavender. The kiss curl was tickling Changbin’s forehead. 

Felix was the first one to pull back. He had a blush on his face with a tiny smile, Changbin probably was looking like a tomato right now. But he didn’t let that stop him from pulling Felix for another kiss. It was much more braver this time, not as fumbling and searching as the first one. They moved their lips together in synch, massaging, simply savoring the other. Changbin had his hand on the nape of Felix’s neck, the other boy’s hand was still on his chin. His heart was about to burst, a thousand butterflies were trying to escape from his chest. Felix was all over Changbin’s senses, he was breathing him, tasting him (a sweet flavor of vanilla and peppermint tea), feeling him. He hadn’t expected this when had climbed up the ladder that night. He hadn’t expected Felix to actually like him back. Felix pecked Changbin’s lips once more and they both pulled back. Changbin was smiling, grinning from ear to ear. Felix giggled, pressed his forehead against Changbin’s shoulder, and Changbin finally dared to wrap his arm around the younger.   
”How long?” Changbin asked with a quiet voice. He didn’t need to speak any louder, not when Felix was right there.   
”Probably since the day we met. But you just couldn’t take the hint.” Changbin blushed. He took Felix’s hand and interwined their fingers. He was happy. Bursting with joy. So happy he couldn’t completely understand it. 

Changbin’s mother had warned him about everything addicting, especially drugs, since Changbin had lost a relative to them a couple of years back. She had warned him about not getting into wrong kinds of circles, like Felix had gotten. She had warned him about dark alleys and alcohol and needles in the park corners. Everything addictive. Never had she warned about drugs with big brown eyes and a heartbeat, though.


End file.
